Escrow payment to faciliate on-line transactions

ABSTRACT

A system and method enables sellers to define a secret shared with an on-line payment provider when listing an item or service for purchase. Consumers deposit funds into an on-line escrow or holding account before committing to a financial on-line transaction or purchase. Once an item is located, the consumer may contact the seller for additional information. By placing funds in escrow, the seller may be more willing to spend the time and effort to deal with the consumer. The consumer, in turn, receives more information to make a purchasing decision. If the transaction is to he completed, the consumer instructs the payment provider maintaining the escrow account to release the funds to the seller&#39;s account. The seller is notified by the payment provider, where the notification includes the secret. This enables the seller to authenticate the confirmation message.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.61/077,039, filed Jun. 30, 2008, entitled “Classified Ads/EscrowPayment,” the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein byreference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to financial transactions andmore particularly to facilitating on-line financial transactions throughan on-line payment provider.

2. Related Art

With the ever-increasing popularity of the Internet and of Internetcommerce, both consumers and sellers are using the Internet tofacilitate financial transactions between buyers and sellers. In on-linefinancial transactions, consumers may use third-party payment serviceproviders to pay for products and services through electroniccommunications with online merchants over electronic networks, such asthe Internet. The third-party payment providers provide aninfra-structure, software, and services that enable member buyers andmember sellers or merchants to make and receive payments. The paymentsmay be credit card payments, electronic bank transfers, or other paymenttechniques offered by the third-party payment provider. One paymenttechnique may be transferring money from an account held by the paymentprovider, as opposed to transferring credit from an outside credit cardcompany or an outside financial institution or bank. Transferring moneyheld in the payment provider account may be cheaper for a user becauseit avoids certain transaction fees or interest payments that may beincurred when transferring money or making a payment from an outsidecredit or banking institution.

One type of on-line transaction utilizing a third-party payment provideris classified ads, such as craigslist or Kijiji, in which sellers listgoods and services for purchase through an on-line site. These listingsare generally very basic, with just a brief written description of theitem or service. Thus, when a potential buyer searches through thelistings and finds an interesting item, the buyer may need additionalinformation before committing to purchase the item. On the seller side,the seller may not want to spend time corresponding with the potentialbuyer because of various reasons, such as uncertainty in the actualinterest of the buyer and financial ability of the buyer to pay for theitem. As a result, the seller may be hesitant to spend additional timeand effort for the potential buyer, such as providing him additionalinformation, and the seller may be hesitant to commit to purchasing anitem with only limited information. This may then lead to a potentialtransaction being canceled before it even starts.

Another problem with on-line purchasing is the possibility of afraudulent message to a seller confirming a transfer of funds. Forexample, a seller may receive a fraudulent message on the seller'smobile device, informing him that, funds have been transferred to hisaccount. The seller, relying on this information, then releases the itemto the “buyer,” only later to find out that no funds were actuallytransferred or deposited. The seller would then have given up the item,with no funds transferred and no way to contact the “buyer.”

SUMMARY

According to one embodiment, a seller posts an item or service forpurchase on an on-line site. The seller includes a secret message, whichonly the seller and the on-line site knows. The secret message may be inany form, such as a phrase, a sequence of letter, characters, and/ornumbers, a recorded voice, or a picture. A buyer locates an item forpurchase from a potential seller and contacts the seller for moreinformation about or conveys interest in the item. The buyer can thentransfer all or a portion of the selling price of the item into anescrow account maintained, by a payment provider, such as PayPal, inc.The funds are held in escrow during the period of the contemplated sale.Once both the buyer and seller are satisfied and want to complete thetransaction, the buyer can notify the payment provider, such as a mobiledevice, to release and transfer the funds to the seller's account. Ifthe funds held in escrow are only a portion of the purchase price, thebuyer may, at the same time, instruct the payment provider to transferadditional foods from the buyer's account to the seller's account. Thepayment provider can then notify the seller, such as to the seller'smobile device through SMS, that the funds are now present in theseller's account. This notification would include the seller's secretmessage. If the payment provider is not the on-line site where theseller listed the item, the on-line site may communicate the secretmessage to the payment provider. Upon notification, the seller providesthe item to the buyer to complete the transaction.

By placing some or all of the purchase price into escrow, on-linefinancial transactions may be completed more efficiently and withgreater confidence. The seller would know the buyer is serious and hassufficient funds to make the purchase, thereby more willing to hold theitem or service until the transaction is completed or canceled. Thebuyer may be able to obtain more information or have the seller putforth more effort in the transaction due to the seller's belief that thebuyer is serious about the potential purchase. Furthermore, the selleris assured that funds have been transferred into his account due to theconfirmation of the secret message when notification is sent. Thisprevents fraudulent confirmation messages being sent and the sellerunwittingly releasing the unpaid item.

These and other features and advantages of the present invention will bemore readily apparent from the detailed description of the embodimentsset forth below taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing steps used to facilitate an on-linetransaction according to one embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system used for facilitating an on-lineaccount according to one embodiment; and

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a system that can be usedto implement one or more components of the system in FIG. 2.

Exemplary embodiments and their advantages are best understood byreferring to the detailed description that follows. It should beappreciated that like reference numerals are used to identify likeelements illustrated in one or more of the FIGS., wherein showingstherein are for purposes of illustrating exemplary embodiments and notfor purposes of limiting the same.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure enable a consumer to place fundsin escrow with an on-line payment provider, such as PayPal, Inc. of SanJose, Calif., while corresponding with a seller and deciding whether topurchase an item or service, with notification to the seller using asecret message shared between the seller and the payment provider. Ifthe potential transaction is canceled, the funds are returned to theconsumer's account. If the transaction is to be completed, the funds arereleased to the seller's account, where the consumer can authorizerelease through a mobile device and the seller can receive confirmationthrough a mobile device. The seller can then transfer the item tocomplete the transaction. By placing funds in escrow, a level ofsecurity is provided for both the buyer and seller. For the buyer, hecan inspect the product or service, meet the seller, etc, before hesends the funds. For the seller, he is assured that the buyer hassufficient funds to complete the transaction. The added secret messageprovides an assurance to the seller that funds were actually transferredto the account.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart 100 showing one embodiment of using an escrowaccount to facilitate an on-line financial transaction, in step 101, aseller lists an item for sale on an on-line site, such as PayPal,craigslist, or Kijiji. Note that for conciseness, a product, good, oritem can also include a service and is not limited to just a tangibleitem, in step 102, the seller defines a “secret” message, which thebuying public does not know. The secret message can be shared with anon-line payment provider who will be managing a subsequent transfer offunds in escrow and for a final purchase, as will be discussed indetail. The secret message can be any seller-defined message, such as aword, a phrase or sentence, a sequence of letters, characters and/ornumbers, a recorded message or sound (of the seller's voice or from aset of sound samples), or a picture (a personal picture or from a set ofpicture samples). The secret message does not have to be unique to aparticular item, and may be used repeatedly with any listing by theseller. The seller may have the option of creating a new secret witheach new listing or simply selecting a previously used or createdsecret. The payment provider may be received front another on-line site,such as a simply a listing site, and does not need to be directlyreceived from the seller.

In step 103, the consumer or buyer locates a product or service that theconsumer may be interested in purchasing. In one example, the consumermay search the Internet for a particular item or browse a site to see ifthere is anything of interest. In the former situation, the consumer maybe presented with numerous sellers, which the consumer can narrow downto a few selected sellers for follow up. In the latter situation, theconsumer may access a classified ads site such as craigslist or Kijiji,which have basic listings of goods and services organized in differentcategories.

Once an item is located, the consumer decides whether additionalinformation is needed for a purchasing decision, in step 104. Theadditional information could be an actual inspection of the product,meeting the seller, additional photos/description, references, specificdetails of the product, etc. If not, which may be the case where theproduct is a known product advertised from an established retailer, theconsumer can simply complete the purchase or transaction at step 106.This may be accomplished through any known means, such as simplyentering payment information or funding source (e.g., credit cardinformation) and authorizing the purchase on the site of the on-linemerchant.

However, if, as determined in step 104, the consumer requires additionalinformation before making a purchasing decision, the consumer firstcontacts the seller in step 108. The consumer may contact the seller byany suitable means, including online, e-mail, texting, phone call,facsimile, etc., and convey that the consumer is interested in theproduct or service, but would require more information than what iscurrently provided. Once the seller agrees to provide or make accessiblethis additional information, the consumer can place all or a portion ofthe funds for the transaction in a holding account or escrow. This canbe through a third party, such as PayPal or other on-line paymentprovider. Accordingly, at step 110, the consumer accesses an on-linepayment provider service. This can be through a consumer device, such asa desk top computer, a laptop computer, a mobile phone, a PDA, or othercomputing device, through wired or wireless communication networks. Ifthe consumer does not have an account with this particular provider, theconsumer can easily create an account by entering requested information,such as e-mail, user name, and/or a password. If the consumer alreadyhas an account, the consumer accesses the account by logging into theaccount, such as simply entering in an e-mail address or user name and apassword.

When the account is accessed, the consumer deposits funds into an escrowor holding account associated with the consumer's on-line account instep 112. The consumer can enter the amount of money to be put into theescrow account, along with the funding source of the money. For example,the consumer may simply enter a specific amount from, a touchpad orkeyboard of the consumer device, or the consumer may select from aseries of buttons having different set amounts (e.g., $10, $20, $30,etc.). In naming a funding source, the source may be an account with thepayment provider or an outside financial institution, such as a bank orcredit card. The funding source can be specified by entering an accountnumber, such as a credit card number or bank account number, orselecting from one or more pre-set sources, which may already have allthe needed relevant information. In that case, a simple press of abutton may be sufficient to select the funding source.

In addition to specifying an amount and funding source, the consumer mayalso designate a recipient of the funds if they are released, althoughnot required at this stage. This information may include an accountnumber, account name, a device phone number, email, or any othersuitable information. Hie recipient or seller does not need to have anaccount, with the payment provider; however, in that case, the paymentprovider should have the capability of receiving or sending funds toanother financial institution, such as a bank. If the payment providerhas contact information about the seller, the payment provider maynotify the seller that funds have been placed in escrow for the seller,where such notification may include transmission of the seller's secretdefined in step 102. The consumer may also be notified that funds havebeen transferred and placed in escrow, but the secret would not becommunicated to the consumer. Notification can be by e-mail, SMS, or anyother suitable form of communication. Depending on the form ofnotification, the notification can be received on a mobile phone, PDA,or computer.

Once funds have been deposited into escrow, the consumer may contact theseller, in step 114, for additional information about the product orservice. Note that this step may be performed prior to depositing fundsin escrow, or certain actions in step 112, such as designating arecipient, may be performed communication with tire seller. Thecommunication can be any suitable purpose, including obtainingadditional information about the product or seller. For example, theconsumer may want photos or additional photos of the product, a moredetailed description of the product, references for the seller, orinformation about the seller, such as location, number of sales, etc.The consumer may also want to contact the seller to negotiate price orpropose a partial trade. All of this can be accomplished through anyagreed upon means between the consumer and seller. Examples include anin-person meeting and/or information sent via e-mail, facsimile, ormail. The information exchange can occur over several meetings orcorrespondences.

At some point, the consumer decides whether to proceed with thetransaction, i.e., make a purchase from the seller, at step 116. Therecould be any number of reasons for not moving forward with thetransaction, such as reliability of the seller, quality of the item,price of the item, or even source of the item. Another reason for notproceeding with the purchase may be that simply the seller decided notto sell the item or to this particular consumer. Regardless the reason,if, as determined at step 116, the item will not be purchased, theconsumer notifies the payment, provider, such as through a mobile deviceor computer, to return the funds held in the escrow account back to theconsumer's funding source. For example, the consumer may simply press acancel button on a mobile device, call the payment provider, send ane-mail, or any other suitable communication means. Upon receipt andprocessing of the consumer communication, the payment provider returnsthe held funds back to the consumer, in step 118. In one embodiment,funds are returned back to the consumer if no instructions are receivedwithin a set period of time, such as 3 months from time of deposit. Thefunds can be returned to the same account that funded the originaltransfer into escrow or to a different account specified by theconsumer. Thus, even though the transaction was not completed, theconsumer and seller were able to move forward with more information thanjust the initial listing for a more informed decision. Furthermore, theconsumer easily and quickly gets his “good faith” money back.

If however, in step 116, the consumer decides to purchase the item, theconsumer then determines, in step 120, if the funds deposited in escroware sufficient, to complete the purchase. If not, additional funds aredeposited in step 122. The additional funds can be deposited into thesame escrow account or to another designated account, such as theseller's account. The seller's account may be with the same paymentprovider or with a different entity. In one embodiment, the additionalfunds are deposited by entering in the additional amount and selecting adestination account, such as by selecting from a group of pre-selectedaccounts or entering in a specific account number or other accountinformation.

Next, at step 124, the consumer can release the funds to the seller.Note that in some embodiments, the release of funds can be done at anytime desired by the consumer, such as during communications with theseller or prior to transferring additional funds in step 122. Releasingthe funds can be accomplished via any suitable wireless communication,such as, but not limited, to short message service (SMS) text messagingand near field communication (NFC) with the consumer's mobile device.The consumer can simply type in a one word message, such as “OK”, andtransmit that message to the financial service provider. The consumer,in other examples, may also type in the amount being released (such aswhen not all funds are desired to be released at that time), anauthorization code, a personal identification number (PIN), etc. Oncethe payment provider receives the consumer authorization/information,funds are sent to the seller's account.

At that time, the payment provider may send, such as through SMS, aconfirmation to the seller's mobile device that the requested funds havebeen released and deposited into the seller's account, at step 126. Thepayment provider may also send the same or similar confirmation to theconsumer's mobile device. Note that the either confirmation can be sentin any manner to any device and is not limited to mobile devices of theconsumer or seller. Included in the confirmation to the seller is theseller's secret message, defined in step 102 above. For example, theconfirmation may include the text of the secret message, an audioplayback of the secret voice or sound recording, an image of the secretpicture, etc. Since the buying public does not have access to the sharedsecret, a fraudulent message with the secret will be extremely hard, ifnot impossible, to send. As a result, if the seller receives the secretwith the confirmation or notification, the seller can be confident thatfunds actually have been transferred to the account.

The seller, upon receiving this confirmation, may then complete thetransaction in step 128. This step may include giving the product to theconsumer, such as in person, through the mail, through a download, avoucher, etc. As part of completing the transaction, the consumer andseller may set up the transaction online or in person at any stage priorto actual exchange of the product, such as at step 114. For example,details of how the product will be given to the consumer may be agreedupon, such as mailing address, meeting location, etc., as well as anyshipping or handling charges or special requests. This may make iteasier for both parties to complete the transaction, since these stepswould then not need to be addressed during a meeting or event for theadditional information or for the actual product exchange.

FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of a block diagram of a system 200configured to facilitate financial transactions over a network 202 toperform the steps described above with respect to FIG. 1. As shown inFIG. 2, system 200 includes at least one consumer device 204, one sellerdevice 206, and at least one payment provider server 208 incommunication over network 202, In one embodiment, network 202 may beimplemented as a single network or a combination of multiple networks.For example, network 202 may include the Internet and/or one or moreintranets, landline networks, wireless networks, and/or otherappropriate types of communication networks. In another example, thenetwork may comprise a wireless telecommunications network (e.g.,cellular phone network) adapted to communicate with other communicationnetworks, such as the Internet.

In one embodiment, consumer device 204 may be implemented using anyappropriate combination of hardware and/or software configured for wiredand/or wireless communication over network 202. For example, consumerdevice 204 may be implemented as a personal computer of a consumer/user210 in communication with network 202, a wireless telephone (e.g., cellphone), personal digital assistant (PDA), notebook computer, and/orvarious other generally known types of computing devices. Consumerdevice 204 may include one or more browser applications 212 which may beused, for example, to provide a user interface to permit the consumer210 to browse information available over network 202. For example,browser application 212 may be implemented as a web browser to viewinformation available over the Internet.

Consumer device 204 may also include a service application 214 forfacilitating financial transactions on network 202. The serviceapplication may include an escrow application 216 which may support orfacilitate depositing funds into an escrow or holding account. In anexample embodiment, the service application 214 comprises a softwareprogram or programs, such as a graphical user interface (GUI),executable by a processor that is configured to interface andcommunicate with a seller 222 via network 202 and seller device 206 andwith payment provider server 208 via network 202. In an exampleembodiment, the service application may be resident on the consumerdevice or accessed by a consumer through network 202, Consumer 210 mayinitiate an escrow transaction with seller 222 through the devices. Theseller may respond to the consumer, and the payment provider server mayfacilitate the transaction, record the transaction, and execute thetransaction as appropriate.

In an example embodiment, service application 234 and escrow application216 may be accessed using a protocol such as a WSDL (web servicesdefinitional language), SOAP (simple object access protocol), API(application program interface), or the like. The applications may beinitiated from a remote call procedure from an API or other protocol.The remote calls may be initiated from a program resident on theconsumer's device, for example, a financial software program such asQUICKEN, QUICKBOOKS, INTUIT, SAP or from a third-party platform orwebsite, for example a social networking site such as FACEBOOK, MYSPACEor any other website that may feature access to a payment providerservice application or escrow application

When installed on or accessed by consumer device 204 and run fromconsumer device 204, service application 214 is configured to provideand display payment services mechanism or mechanisms, such as an image,icon, radio button, dialogue box or other graphical user interface (GUI)on a display component (e.g., monitor) of consumer device 204. Ingeneral, the GUI represents a program, application, command, link to aweb page, etc. wherein consumer 210 may select a payment service, shop,conduct other payment processing services. The GUI may include a theoption of initiating an escrow transaction by taking a certain action,for example by clicking on a related icon, radio button, link or otherbutton or representation using a cursor control component (e.g., mouse)or keyboard.

In an example embodiment, in which consumer 210 has not yet establishedan account or user record with payment provider server 208, uponinstallation of service application 214, consumer 210 may be prompted toestablish a user account with payment provider server 208, whereinconsumer 210 may use consumer device 204 to access payment providerserver 208 via network 202. When establishing a user account, consumer210 may be asked to provide personal information, such as name, address,phone number, user name, e-mail address, password, etc., and financialinformation, such as banking information, credit card information, etc.

Payment provider server 208 may create a user account 224 for each useror consumer 210. The user account may include account information 226,including third party funding source information 228 used to fund theescrow account, and a user status 230. Third-party funding sourceinformation 228 may include the identity of sources, routing numbers,account numbers and the like. Information related to the availability offunds and/or credit may be stored as part of a user status.

Consumer device 204 may include other applications 218 as may be desiredin particular embodiments to provide additional features available toconsumer 210. For example, such other applications 218 may includesecurity applications for implementing consumer-side security features,programmatic user applications for interlacing with an appropriateprotocol such as WSDL, SOAP or API or the like over network 202 orvarious other types of generally known programs and/or applications.

Consumer device 204 may also include one or more user identifiers 220,which may be implemented, for example, as operating system registryentries, cookies associated with browser application 212, identifiersassociated with hardware of the consumer device 204, or various otherappropriate identifiers. User identifier 220 may include attributesrelated to the user, such as personal information (e.g., a user name,password, photograph image, biometric ID, address, phone number, etc.)and banking information (e.g., banking institution, credit card issuer,user account numbers, security information, etc.). In variousimplementations, user identifier 220 may be passed with a request totransfer funds into an escrow account to payment provider server 208,and user identifier 220 may be used by payment provider server 208 toassociate consumer 210 with a particular user account 224 maintained bypayment provider server 208.

In one embodiment, seller device 206 may be similar to consumer device204. It may be owned, operated and maintained, for example, by afinancial or payment services provider with user account 224 stored onpayment provider server 208. Seller device 206, browser application 212,service application 214, escrow application 216, other applications 218,and user identifier 220 may implemented similarly as described abovewith respect to the consumer device. Service application 214 of sellerdevice 206 may also enable the seller to post a listing of an item forsale on an on-line site through network 202. Service application 214 mayalso enable the seller to communicate with payment provider 208 vianetwork 202 to define or create the shared secret, as discussed abovewith respect to FIG. 1.

Payment provider server 208 may be maintained, for example, by an onlinepayment service provider, such as PayPal, Inc. of San lose, CA, whichmay provide payment processing for online transactions on behalf ofconsumer 210 to seller 222 through their respective devices 204 and 206.In this regard, payment provider server 208 includes one or more serviceapplications 232, which may be configured to interact with the devices204, 206 over network 202 to facilitate the financial transactions(including escrow transactions), purchase of items, products and/orservices from other users or from third-party merchants (not shown).

Payment provider server 208 may be configured to maintain a plurality ofuser (buyers and sellers) accounts 224, each of which may includeaccount information 226 associated with individual users, includingconsumer 210 and seller 222 associated with the devices 204, 206,respectively. For example, account information 226 may includeInformation, such as one or more account numbers, passwords, credit cardinformation, banking information, user name, or other types of financialinformation, which may be used to facilitate online transactions betweenconsumer 210 and seller 222. User accounts 224 may include memory inindividual seller accounts that stores the shared secret from theseller.

User funds accounts 236 may be maintained by payment provider server208, which represent funds that are held by the payment provider. Thefunds in the account may represent funds received in previoustransactions and/or funds placed in the account by a user for accessthrough the payment provider services and/or funds returned to a user bya merchant upon a return of an item or cancellation of a service. Fundsdeposited and held in escrow accounts may also be maintained in userfunds accounts, where funds are not released from the escrow accountsuntil instructed by an authorized user.

Thus, in one embodiment, consumer 210 communicates to payment providerserver 208 from consumer device 204 via network 202, instructing atransfer of funds to an escrow account held in user funds 236 of paymentprovider server 208. Funds can be transferred from accounts maintainedby payment provider server 208 or from third party funding sources 238,such as linked bank accounts or credit cards. If a transaction orpurchase is completed or to be completed, consumer 210, through the samemeans, may instruct payment provider server 208 to release or transferthe held fluids to an account: of seller 222, maintained in paymentprovider server 208 or outside. Otherwise, the held funds are returnedto consumer 210.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a computer system 300 according to oneembodiment., which may be suitable for implementing embodiments ofvarious aspects of this disclosure, including, for example, device 204,device 206 and/or payment provider server 208. In variousimplementations of various embodiments, device 204 and/or device 206 maycomprise a personal computing device, such as a personal computer,laptop, PDA, cellular phone or other personal computing orcommunications devices. Payment provider server 208 may comprise anetwork computing device, such as one or more servers, computer orprocessor combined to provide the payment services. Thus, it should beappreciated that devices 204, 206, and/or payment provider server 208may be implemented as computer system 300 in a manner as follows.

In one embodiment, computer system 300 may include a bus 302 or othercommunication mechanism for communicating information, whichinterconnects subsystems and components, such as a processing component304 (e.g., processor, micro-controller, digital signal processor (DSP),etc.), a system memory component 306 (e.g., RAM), a static storagecomponent 308 (e.g., ROM), a disk drive component 310 (e.g., magnetic oroptical), a network interface component 312 (e.g., modem or Ethernetcard), a display component 314 (e.g., CRT or LCD), an input component316 (e.g., keyboard or keypad), and/or a cursor control component 318(e.g., mouse or trackball). In one embodiment, disk drive component 310may comprise a database having one or more disk drive components.

Computer system 300 may perform specific operations by processor 304executing one or more sequences of one or more instructions contained insystem memory component 306, according to steps described above withrespect to FIGS. 1 and 2. Such Instructions may be read into systemmemory component 306 from another computer readable medium, such asstatic storage component 308 or disk drive component 310. The variousstorage or memory components may be used to store the seller's sharedsecret. In other embodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in placeof or in combination with software instructions to implement theinvention.

Logic may be encoded in a computer readable medium, which may refer toany medium that participates in providing instructions to processor 304for execution. Such a medium may take many forms, including but notlimited to, non-volatile media, volatile media, and transmission media.In various implementations, non-volatile media includes optical ormagnetic disks, such as disk drive component 310, volatile mediaincludes dynamic memory, such as system memory component 306, andtransmission media includes coaxial cables, copper wire, and fiberoptics, including wires that comprise bus 302. In one example,transmission media may take the form of acoustic or light waves, such asthose generated during radio wave and infrared data communications.

Some common forms of computer readable media includes, for example,floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magneticmedium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, anyother physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM,FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, carrier wave, or anyother medium from which a computer is adapted to read.

In various example embodiments, execution of instruction sequences forpracticing embodiments of the invention may be performed by computersystem 300. In various other embodiments, a plurality of computersystems 300 coupled by communication link 320 (e.g., network 110 of FIG.1, LAN. WLAN, PTSN, or various other wired or wireless networks) mayperform instruction sequences to practice the invention in coordinationwith one another.

Computer system 300 may transmit, and receive messages, data,information and instructions, including one or more programs (i.e.,application code) through communication link 320 and communicationinterface 312. Received program code may be executed by processor 304 asreceived and/or stored In disk drive component 310 or some othernon-volatile storage component for execution.

Where applicable, various embodiments provided by the present disclosuremay be implemented using hardware, software, or combinations of hardwareand software. Also, where applicable, the various hardware componentsand/or software components set forth herein may be combined intocomposite components comprising software, hardware, and/or both withoutdeparting from the spirit of the present disclosure. Where applicable,the various hardware components and or software components set forthherein may be separated into sub-components comprising software,hardware, or both without departing from the scope of the presentdisclosure, in addition, where applicable, it is contemplated thatsoftware components may be implemented as hardware components andvice-versa.

Software, in accordance with the present disclosure, such as programcode and/or data, may be stored on one or more computer readablemediums. It is also contemplated that software identified herein may beimplemented using one or more general purpose or specific purposecomputers and/or computer systems, networked and/or otherwise. Whereapplicable, the ordering of various steps described herein may bechanged, combined into composite steps, and/or separated into sub-stepsto provide features described herein.

The foregoing disclosure is not intended to limit the present inventionto the precise forms or particular fields of use disclosed. It iscontemplated that various alternate embodiments and/or modifications tothe present invention, whether explicitly described or implied herein,are possible in light of the disclosure.

Having thus described embodiments of the invention, persons of ordinaryskill in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form anddetail without departing from the scope of the invention. Thus, theinvention is limited only by the claims.

1. A method of facilitating an on-line transaction, comprising:receiving a secret from a seller; receiving a request from a potentialbuyer to transfer funds from a funding account to an on-line holdingaccount, wherein the funds are at least a partial payment for on-linegoods or services; transferring the funds to the holding account;receiving a request from the potential buyer to release the funds to auser account if the on-line transaction is to be completed; transferringthe funds from the holding account to the user account; and transmittinga confirmation comprising the secret to the seller when the funds aretransferred to an account of the seller.
 2. The method of claim 1,further comprising transferring the funds in the holding account back tothe funding account if the on-line transaction is not completed.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the funding account is maintained with theholding, account.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user account isassociated with a seller of the goods or services.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising notifying the potential buyer when the fundsare transferred to the holding account or to the user account.
 6. Themethod of claim 4, further comprising notifying the seller when thefunds are transferred to the holding account or to the user account,wherein the notifying comprises transmitting the secret.
 7. The methodof claim 5, wherein the notifying comprises wirelessly transmitting amessage to the potential buyer.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein thenotifying comprises wirelessly transmitting a message to the seller. 9.The method of claim 1, wherein the secret is an audio or text message, asequence of symbols, or a picture.
 10. The method of claim 1, whereinthe secret is created by the seller.
 11. The method of claim 1, whereinthe secret is selected by the seller from a set of secrets.
 12. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the secret is unique to each seller.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the secret is unique to each good or service.14. A method of facilitating an on-line transaction, comprising; listingfor sale a good or service on an on-line site; defining a secretassociated with the good or service; receiving a notification that fundsfrom an escrow account of an on-line payment provider have beentransferred to a seller's account, wherein the notification comprisesthe secret; and providing the good or service to a buyer after thenotification.
 15. The method of claim 14, wherein the escrow account andthe seller's account are maintained by a same on-line payment provider.16. The method of claim 14, wherein the secret is an audio or textmessage, a sequence of symbols, or a picture.
 17. The method of claim14, wherein the secret is unique to each seller.
 18. The method of claim1, wherein the secret is unique to each good or service.
 19. Acomputer-readable medium containing instructions that cause a serviceprovider facilitating financial transactions over a network to perform amethod comprising: receiving a secret from a seller; receiving a requestfrom a potential buyer to transfer funds from a funding account to anon-line holding account, wherein the funds are at least a partialpayment for on-line goods or services; transferring the funds to theholding account; receiving a request from the potential buyer to releasethe funds to a user account if the on-line transaction is to becompleted; transferring the funds from the holding account to the useraccount; and transmitting a confirmation comprising the secret to theseller when the funds are transferred to an account of the seller. 20.The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the secret is an audioor text message, a sequence of symbols, or a picture.
 21. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the secret is created bythe seller.
 22. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein thesecret is selected by the seller from a set of secrets.
 23. Thecomputer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the secret is unique toeach seller.
 24. The computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein thesecret is unique to each good or service.
 25. A computer-readable mediumcontaining instructions that cause a service provider facilitatingfinancial transactions over a network to perform a method comprising:listing for sale a good or service on an on-line site; defining a secretassociated with the good or service; receiving a notification that fundsfrom an escrow account of an on-line payment, provider have beentransferred to a seller's account, wherein the notification comprisesthe secret; and providing the good or service to a buyer after thenotification.
 26. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein thesecret is an audio or text message, a sequence of symbols, or a picture.27. The computer-readable medium of claim 25, wherein the secret isunique to each seller.
 28. The computer-readable medium of claim 25,wherein the secret is unique to each good or service.